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TARANTULAS!!! - Review of Iberostar Cozumel

TARANTULAS!!!

We had a family of 12 holiday this year for 2 weeks. The Hotel facilities were great but overall our family rated the rooms 3 star or below. Altough the hotel is great the smell of the flamingos were below our standards, and our standards are very low. If you want to go somewhere try gran bahia principe.It is 10000000% better.

p.s: in cozumel there are turrantulas.The Family

xxxxxxx

Stayed: August 2007, travelled with family

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Ask MrLuvvaman about Iberostar Cozumel

1 Thank MrLuvvaman

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

My husband and I stayed here for our honeymoon Aug. 13-17, right before Hurricane Dean. Glad to read there was not much damage.

The grounds on this place are fabulous, it was so enjoyable to walk to the restaurants and pools, you never knew what sort of animal you were going to see. And the flowers were amazing.

The food was very good, I was worried having been to Cancun and not impressed with the food there. But I was beyond happy. If you go to the restaurants with reservations, the Mexican is a must. I tried to get us reservations a second night I enjoyed it so much.

The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. And the rooms were clean and nice, not huge, but you don't spend much time in the rooms.

We took a catamaran out one afternoon to snorkel, and they put up the sail to come back while the sun was setting. It was the highlight of our trip. I was not into the diving, I know that is what a lot of people go there for. But enjoyed the snorkeling so much that I would go back for that alone.

It is a great resort, you will not be disappointed.

Stayed: August 2007, travelled as a couple

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Ask mrhain0 about Iberostar Cozumel

8 Thank mrhain0

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

This was my second time their this year and I travel very often and have to say Mr. Ricardo Dominguez the general manager runs the place like he owns it. The resort and rooms are clean even the bath room near the pool is very clean. The food is very good normally when I travel I go out to try the local foods but was not able to pull myself out to dine of the resort. There is a nice verity of high quality foods breakfast lunch and dinner. The service is great and very friendly the only bad apple at this well run resort is one person at the dive shop named Sophie. I can not believe that Dressel divers would have such a negative, rude and argumentative person on their team. When I arrived I just wanted to get my pony bottle filled and stated I wanted to pay to have it done. Sophie asked me whom I was diving with and I said well on my last trip I dove with them and Deep Blue which is located in town and that’s what I wanted to do again. In front of her clients she forced me to say why I was diving with deep blue and had to tell her they do advanced dives and go to sites they do not or will not do the deep dives like Deep Blue will. She was so rude that I told her I was going to email Mr. Dressel and she said that she did not care and I have to tell you that it shows. The manager at the dive shop told her to stop and she just kept making faces and shouting out rude statements. I will be returning to the resort in the next month or so but will not be doing any dives with Dressel divers if Sophie is still an employee of the dive shop. Frank Gilligan

Stayed: September 2007, travelled solo

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Ask Frankie08721 about Iberostar Cozumel

3 Thank Frankie08721

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

We stayed 4 nights at the IB Cozumel, beginning July 15. My husband and I went alone for a small getaway. Overall, the resort was very nice. The resort is very spread out, which gives it a nice secluded feel, however there is quite a bit of walking between restaurant, pool, room, dive shop, etc. The grounds were beautiful and full of peacocks, iguanas, flamingos and foliage which did make the walks pleasant.

Food: Pretty good. after day 3 it all felt a little repetitive. We had reservations at the Mexican restaurant and the steakhouse. Both were nice and the food was tasty. We did walk 50 yards down the beach and ate at Albertos which was excellent!

Rooms: Small, but sufficient. We didn't spend much time in the room anyway so this was not a big deal. Had we brought the kids, we would have preferred the rooms be bigger. Our housekeeping was very gracious and kept the fridge full. We tipped her $2 one day and she seemed thrilled!

Pool: The pool is plenty big and lots of room for playing, relaxing etc. There is a nice shallow end about 1 ft. deep for small kids.

Activities: We took the snorkel trip through the dive shop. They were all very professional and fun! We enjoyed this very much. We took the catamaran out one morning which was pretty fun too. There are activities scheduled all throughout the day to suit all tastes. Water aerobics, dance lessons, pool games, archery. We also rented a jeep at the resort and did our own thing one day instead of booking a tour. It was cheaper and in our opinion more fun. We went downtown, to Punta Sur (beautiful beach area) and just around the island in general stopping at some of the local places.

Beach: Water shoes recommended if walking into the water. My husband actually tore his shoe on a piece of coral, so it is pretty rough. However, they do have a ladder on the pier which we found a much better way to enter the water! The sand is fine to walk in bare feet on.

Service was great at the resort and everyone was very friendly. Yes there was a smell, but only by the tennis courts which you have to go out of your way to get to. Yes, there were ants in our bathroom, but they were tiny and not bothersome and very few. Only negative: We requested a King bed and were given 2 doubles. We asked to be changed and they did the next day as soon as one came available. David the bellboy husseled and carted our luggage around for us up and down stairs without complaint. He was great!

We would definitely recommend this resort. Not sure if we sould bring the kids back (they are 2 and 4). Would probably find a more child friendly resort (not much for young kids to do) or wait until they were a little older. Had it been our first trip to an AI we probably would have given it 5 stars, but in comparison to 2 others we've been to we are giving it 4.

Stayed: July 2007, travelled as a couple

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Ask TKJN21 about Iberostar Cozumel

9 Thank TKJN21

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

We took a family trip with my parents, my brother, and his wife. The trip was for 5 days. This was an excellent deal. All-inclusive.We had all been to Cancun before and were excited about seeing Cozumel. We all loved the privacy the bungalos offered. There are 4 apartments to each bungalo. We had 3 of the 4 and felt like it was our own little home. The showers were clean and large. The A/C worked well. There is a motion detector switch that starts the fans and the A/C. Service in the common areas was great. We felt very pampered. My sister and law and I went to the spa. The prices were very compatable ($90 for a message). Great experience.The food is average. They prepare for many types of palates. Not very tasty, but it was all inclusive. There is a pier to access the charters right on hotel property. The fish were everywhere around the pier. Fun snorkeling right on the property. It was very convenient to get on the charters and they were reasonably priced. We went snorkeling one day and had a great time. The reefs in Cozumel are much nicer than in Cancun. There was entertainment each night. Sometimes it was a little hokey, but fun was had by all.

Stayed: October 2006, travelled with friends

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Ask scoutmomsue about Iberostar Cozumel

4 Thank scoutmomsue

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Firstly let me start by saying we had a brilliant holiday at the Iberostar Cozumel, but I think many of the rave reviews paint a slightly different picture from the reality. It is a fantastic destination for families and groups, but it's probably not the place for couples looking for a really romantic getaway - I don't want this review to sound negative, it's just something to bear in mind if you're thinking of booking this hotel (though many will no doubt disagree).

We travelled with Hayes & Jarvis and were not overly impressed that there was no rep on the island - we were passed onto a Mexican tour company called Worry Free Vacations, and did not get off to a great start when we were told that our transport for the hotel was 'stuck in traffic' (at 10pm...) and would be about 10 minutes. 40 minutes later he turned up but told us we'd have to stay over night in Puerto del Carmen as we wouldn't catch the last ferry. By this point we were so tired (having travelled from London via New York) that we didn't care, and were taken to the Playacar Palace (there were hardly any cars on the road...). We cheered up when we were shown to our room witha huge hot tub next to the gigantic bed. This hotel was a true, luxurious 5* hotel, the breakfast was amazing the next day and we were glad for the delay!

Our worry-free rep met us at the Iberostar and proceeded to try to sell us every trip under the sun whilst we waited for our room to become ready. He then told us he wouldn't be back at the hotel as we were his only clients there, but he did insist on booking an appointment with us for later in the day to attempt to sell us more trips.

As for the hotel, we liked the way the rooms were cottage-style and set in lovely gardens with lots of wildlife - flamingos, peackocks, giant iguanas, turtles etc. The room was close to the pool (we never smelt this sewage smell people have mentioned anywhere in the resort). It was nice enough and well air conditioned, we didn't find the beds uncomfortable (pillows were a bit flat though), but overall it was nowhere near the standard of the room we'd stayed in at the Playacar Palace, and certainly not 5* standards (the H&J brochure said the hotel was 4* but the hotel calls itself 5*). I suppose you don't really need a bath in a hot climate but it would have been nice, shower was ok (not overly powerful), and as others have mentioned, a bottle opener and more drawers would be useful! That said, we didn't spend much time in there so really wasn't a big deal, but I am a lover of creature comforts. We did love the hammock on the balcony! and the maid did a great job at making animals out of towels!

Food was fairly average to be honest, but having said that I would never expect an all inclusive hotel to have exceptional food as food left out on counters will never be the same as food served straight from the oven - you get what you pay for. Breakfasts were good and we loved the freshly made juices/smoothies. Lunch was not good - the same almost every day and lots of burgers, chips, pizza, nachos etc and a limited selection of fruit (basically melon or pineapple), and flies and birds were a big problem in the pool restaurant. - there was bird poo all over the chairs which was pretty offputting. The dinner buffet grew on us as the holiday progressed - I liked the pasta station where they would make it fresh for you, there was a good selection but the meat was nearly always tough and desserts always looked great but tasted fairly average. Of the 3 speciality restaurants, the Mexican was the best. At the steak restaurant I ordered the tenderloin expecting beef, but it was white?? Didn't look like beef to me! Our jacket potatoes were stone cold, my husband sent his back and it was replaced with another stone cold one! It was pretty poor. We loved the decor of the rock star cafe and the food was ok. I had hoped that if I ordered a burger it might be a better quality one than the ones they had at the pool every day (which I never had) but it was exactly the same. Also for couples and in particular honeymooners, it struck me that there was a complete lack of anywhere remotely private or romantic to eat at night - would be nice if there was a restaurant on the beach. The reservation system for the 3 a la carte restaurants was very irritating and seemed pointless when the hotel was nowhere near full.

The star friends are brilliant and like everyone says, they really do work so hard. Joining in with games etc is not really our thing and in the first few days we rolled our eyes as yet another round of 'Hey Baby' blared out around the pool at 4pm, but by the last day we decided if you can't beat them, you may as well join them and the aqua aerobics, volley ball etc was good fun. We did find it extremely noisy around the pool, especially in the first week when there seemed to be 90% Americans in large groups, 10% other nationalities/couples. It was difficult to get a drink, or seat at the bar, there were human pyramids crashing down everywhere around us and lots of whooping and hollering - obviously just people having fun on holiday which is fine, just doesn't make for a relaxing getaway! We usually go to places like the Maldives on holiday as we like to get away from it all and relax, I just wouldn't recommend coming here for that. It got better in the 2nd week when it seemed a lot more family orientated and had calmed down. The beach was usually quieter and was lovely, just a shame it was so rocky on the floor of the sea.

Diving was excellent - we used Dressel Divers on the beach and saw sharks, turtles & dolphins. I also thoroughly recommend the Whale Shark trip, which we also booked through Dressel Divers (as they only allow maximum of 6 per boat unlike some other companies). We were amazed by how much time we got with these beautiful creatures, and couldn't believe how many of them we saw - it must have been at least 20. Also visited Holbox Island on the way back for lunch, which was stunning - much more our idea of a paradise getaway location.

Sorry this has been a bit long, but to summarise, you will have a great time here as long as you have realistic expectations - don't expect peace & tranquility or haute cuisine, do expect noise, fun, games and plenty of food and alcohol! I am very picky when it comes to hotels so many of the points I have made may not be an issue for others and I can see why people love it here, but for me it's somewhere to go once and enjoy, but next year I think I'll be going somewhere more romantic with my husband - I'd consider coming back when I have kids though!

Stayed: August 2007, travelled as a couple

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Ask Holiday_Obsessive about Iberostar Cozumel

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC